Chocolate Cake with Hazelnut Cream

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cake

  • 4 eggs
  • 80g sugar
  • 50g cake flour
  • 14g cocoa powder
  • 25g milk
  • 25g oil

Hazelnut Cream

  • 50g hazelnut
  • 10g caster sugar
  • 500g double cream

Alternative – Chocolate Cream

  • 5 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 500g double cream

Decoration

  • 50g chocolate
  • Fruit of your choice e.g. raspberry, strawberry, blueberry

Equipment:

  • 30cm x 30cm baking tray
  • Electric mixer
  • Sieve
  • Mixing bowls
  • Spatula
  • Whisk
  • (blender)

Prep time:

1.5hrs

Cooking time:

1.25hrs

Steps:

Chocolate Cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C
  2. Separate 4 egg yolk and egg white.
  3. Whisk the egg white with an electric mixer whilst adding 65g of sugar gradually until you get a firm peak.
  4. Mix 4 egg yolks and 15g of sugar.
  5. Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg white into the mixture, repeat until all the egg white is added and the mixture is mixed well using a spatula.
  6. Fold in 50g of sieved cake flour and 14g of cocoa powder.
  7. Add a small portion of the mixture to a bowl containing 25g of milk and 25g of oil, mix well.
  8. Add the milk and oil mixture to the batter, mix well.
  9. Transfer the mixture into the baking tray lined with baking paper, bake at 200°C for 15mins.

Hazelnut Cream

  1. Roast 50g of hazelnut in an oven at 140°C for an hour.
  2. Use wire wrack to rub the skin of the hazelnut off.
  3. Chop the hazelnut in a blender until a smooth paste forms.
  4. Mix 10g of sugar into the hazelnut paste.
  5. Use an electric mixer to whisk 500g of double cream, add the hazelnut paste half way through.

Alternative – Chocolate Cream

  1. Add 5tbsp of cocoa powder and 50g of caster sugar into 500g of double cream, whisk the mixture with an electric mixer.

Assembling the Cake

  1. Cut the cake base into 4 rectangular strips of equal width (7.5cm each).
  2. Spread half of the cream onto the cake base.
  3. Roll each rectangle strip over, connecting the end of one rectangular strip with the other to create a big Swiss roll.
  4. Stand the Swiss roll onto a cake turn table, cover the cake with the cream.
  5. Grate 50g of chocolate, pat the chocolate crumbs onto the side of the cake.
  6. Decorate the top of the cake with fruits of your choice.
Tips
  • Make sure the electric mixer and the mixing bowl are clean and dry before beating egg whites.
  • Haven’t got an electric mixer? It is possible to beat egg white without one but it would be quite tough.
  • Blending the hazelnut will take a while (about 10mins) – be patient.
  • Chill the whisk and the mixing bowl in the fridge before whisking double cream ensures that the cream stays light and fluffy.
  • Alternatively you could bake the chocolate cake in a 9x2inches cake pan for 30-40mins, then separate the cake into 3 different layers and coat each layer with cream. Spread the cream on top of the cake and on the side of it, then decorate with chocolate crumbs.